Tülay Korkutan is running for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Istanbul. Korkutan, who has been trying to be the voice of women in streets and squares since she was young, is getting ready to transfer this struggle in Parliament with the HDP.

The young candidate, 28, spoke to ANF and said: “If something changes, it will change with women”.

Her mother was an exploited house worker and Korkutan learned from her the woman’s struggle. “When I was in high school I was working in the buffet of a residence with pool where my mum also worked. I saw people there spending more than what my mother earned in a month. This influenced me a lot and made me shape my thought about exploitation”.

HDP is a party of women and youth

Korkutan began working in the İmece Housewives Union in Esenyurt where she lives. Then she worked with the Women for Peace Initiative and the HDP Women's Assemblies. She said she accepted the candidacy to become the voice of women and young people.

“The HDP is a party of women and youth. I am in politics since I was 18 years old and I am coming from the street. I have been in the HDP since its foundation and I want to transfer the women's power and colour from the street to parliament" said Korkutan, explaining why she chose HDP.

Especially after the declaration of OHAL (State of Emergency), Korkutan said that together with the people, the streets were actually taken captive. Freedom of expression and thought were imprisoned, she said adding that again it was women who came out from the streets.

Stressing that the AKP, in order to crash women, workers, laborers, youth, socialists, revolutionaries, has actually politicised the streets and shaped its politics on repression, Korkutan said that the only place to oppose this increasingly repressive regime is the HDP.

I express myself better in the HDP

Remarking that HDP is the voice of the oppressed, the laborers, the youth and, most importantly, women, Korkutan said: “As a socialist, feminist woman, I express myself better in HDP, I can exist with my own strength and my ideas, I feel more visible. The HDP is the only alternative party. It is the only party addressing women in all their colours, women quotas, co-chair system.

AKP is trying to dictate what women can and can’t do

Korkutan pointed out that the AKP, which is based on Turkish-Islamic synthesis and the one-man regime, marginalizing and criminalizing all those who do not think like it, is most dangerous especially for women.

Evidence of this, said Korkutan, are the laws approved in Parliament on women: “How many children should women have, what color lipstick should they have, how they should dress, how long they could walk on the street while pregnant… they tried to impose on women their laws and their politics which is one of shutting women home, suggesting that the woman's task is to look after the family, the husband”.

AKP should be judged not by its words but by its deeds

Korkutan said that the AKP government makes young people unable to see their future. “They split the universities, they continuously change the exam systems. There is no job for university graduates, which is why a great proportion of the unemployed are young people. They get teachers to inform on one another”.

This is a summary of how they look at the contemporary, education system. To understand which country expects us should this one-man regime continue, it is sufficient to see what they say and what they actually did in the past 16 years.

There is no democracy ahead. They said they would solve the Kurdish question, and they imprisoned elected lawmakers and elected mayors; they say they fight the coup, and they are governing the country through emergency law”.

If something changes it would be with women

Emphasizing that the 24 June elections are an opportunity to reverse this dark trend, Korkutan said that women will have a mission here. “If something changes, it will change with women" she said.

In this sense, she added, the HDP is the only party created by women's struggle and where women's demands find a place.

“If we are elected, we will meet young people and women first and will work on their proposals for change. To begin with, - she said - every neighborhood must have a nursery. I know from my friends, they cannot work because they have to look after children. Really sheltered and secure women's protection homes must be built in every town. Today there are 'shelters' but they are not really open to the control of any women's organization. We will change the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, we will make a Ministry for Women. Many women's associations were closed because of the Emergency Law, we will reopen them”.

Free the political hostages

Korkutan, who stated that politicians and journalists held in prison as hostages will be released, added: “Hostage mayors, deputies, journalists will be released and in this sense we will empty prisons. No political prisoner will remain in prison. We will open women solidarity centres. I imagine a country where everyone is equal, no one suffers from hunger, children are not begging on the streets, women are comfortably traveling, no one else is isolated because of their belief or identity. I imagine a contemporary, polyphonic country where everyone lives in peace. And I'm going to try hard to make this true”.